World
Pope appears in St. Peter's Square for first time in weeks

Pope Francis appeared in public for the first time in weeks on Sunday, greeting crowds from a wheelchair in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
It was the first time Francis appeared in public since he briefly addressed crowds when being discharged from the hospital on March 23. The pope suffered a bout of double pneumonia that left him hospitalized for five weeks.
Francis made the unannounced visit near the end of Mass and delivered a brief greeting, all while receiving oxygen via his nose.
“Happy Sunday to everyone,” Francis said. “Thank you so much.”
POPE FRANCIS MAKES FIRST PUBLIC APPEARANCE IN FIVE WEEKS
Pope Francis listens to his secretary as he appears to the faithful at the end of a Mass celebrated by Monsignor Rino Fisichella (not pictured) on the occasion of the Jubilee of the Sick in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on April 6, 2025. (Riccardo De Luca/Anadolu via Getty Images)
MEDICAL STAFF PROVIDES UPDATE ON POPE FRANCIS’ CONDITION
The Vatican also released a written message from Francis marking Sunday’s Mass, which was specially focused on healthcare workers.
“I ask the Lord that this touch of his love might reach all those who suffer and encourage those who are taking care of them,” said the text.
Doctors overseeing Francis’ care during his stay at Gemelli Hospital in Rome say that they briefly considered ending the pope’s treatment due to his condition.
Medical director Dr. Sergio Alfieri recounted the scenes on Feb. 28 when the 88-year-old suffered a coughing fit and inhaled vomit, prompting staff to have to clear his airways and later put on a non-invasive mechanical ventilation mask to help him breathe.

Pope Francis appears in St. Peter’s Square for the first time in weeks. (Riccardo De Luca/Anadolu via Getty Image)
“For the first time I saw tears in the eyes of some of the people around him. People who, I understood during this period of hospitalization, sincerely love him, like a father. We were all aware that the situation had worsened further and there was a risk that he would not make it,” Alfieri told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
“We had to choose whether to stop and let him go or force it and try with all the drugs and therapies possible, running the very high risk of damaging other organs. And in the end we took this path,” he reportedly added.

Pope Francis waves to believers as he leaves the Cercle Cite after a meeting with Luxembourg’s prime minister during a four-day apostolic journey in Luxembourg and Belgium, in Luxembourg City, on Sept. 26, 2024. (Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP/Getty)
Alfieri said to the newspaper that Francis “delegated every type of healthcare decision to Massimiliano Strappetti, his personal healthcare assistant who knows the Pope’s wishes perfectly.”
“Try everything, we won’t give up,” Alfieri recalled Strappetti telling staff at the hospital. “That’s what we all thought, too. And no one gave up”.

World
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,235

Here are the key events on day 1,235 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Here is how things stand on Sunday, July 13:
Fighting
- Ukrainian officials said Russian air attacks overnight on Saturday killed at least two people in the western city of Chernivtsi and wounded 38 others across Ukraine.
- The raids also damaged civilian infrastructure from Kharkiv and Sumy in the northeast to Lviv, Lutsk and Chernivtsi in the west.
- The Russian Ministry of Defence said it attacked companies in Ukraine’s military-industrial complex in Lviv, Kharkiv and Lutsk, as well as a military aerodrome.
- The United Nations Human Rights monitoring mission in Ukraine said that June saw the highest monthly civilian casualties in three years, with 232 people killed and 1,343 injured.
- In Russia, a man was killed in the Belgorod region after a shell struck a private house, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
Politics and diplomacy
- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told visiting Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov that his country was ready to “unconditionally support” all actions taken by Moscow in Ukraine.
- Earlier, Lavrov held talks with his North Korean counterpart, Choe Son Hui, in Wonsan, and they issued a joint statement pledging support to safeguard the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of each other’s countries, according to North Korean state media.
- Lavrov also warned the United States, South Korea and Japan against forming “alliances directed against anyone, including North Korea and, of course, Russia”.
- Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, said his government hoped to reach an agreement with the European Union and its partners on guarantees that Slovakia would not suffer from the end of Russian gas supplies by Tuesday. Slovakia has been blocking the EU’s 18th sanctions package on Russia over its disagreement with a proposal to end all imports of Russian gas from 2028. Slovakia, which gets the majority of its gas from Russian supplier Gazprom under a long-term deal valid until 2034, argues the move could cause shortages, a rise in prices and transit fees, and lead to damage claims.
- Russia blamed Western sanctions for the collapse of its agreement with the UN to facilitate exports of Russian food and fertilisers. The three-year agreement was signed in 2022 in a bid to rein in global food prices.
Weapons
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv was “close to reaching a multilevel agreement” with the US “on new Patriot systems and missiles for them”. Ukraine was stepping up production of its own interceptor systems, he added.
World
Trump's tariff collections expected to grow in June US budget data

World
17-year-old British teen dies after beach sand tunnel collapses during family vacation: report

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A day at the beach turned tragic when a 17-year-old boy was killed after a sand tunnel he was digging abruptly collapsed, burying him alive.
The teen, identified as Riccardo Boni by several Italian media outlets, was vacationing in Montalto di Castro, Italy, with his family when the incident occurred on Thursday, July 10.
Boni’s family was staying at a resort in Montalto di Castro, approximately 70 miles north of Rome. The collapse happened around 3:00 p.m. local time while he was on the beach with his father and siblings.
According to local outlet Corriere della Sera, Riccardo Boni and his younger siblings had moved closer to the shoreline, where they began digging a large hole that was reportedly nearly five feet deep, in a more secluded area of the beach. Meanwhile, their father was nearby, dozing off under a beach umbrella.
FATHER AND SON DROWN IN LAKE MICHIGAN DURING WEEKEND FAMILY BOATING TRIP TRAGEDY
An aerial view shows Lido of Ostia, Rome’s seaside, with private beaches closed for the winter season, on November 10, 2024. (Photo by Andrea BERNARDI / AFP) (Photo by ANDREA BERNARDI/AFP via Getty Images)
Suddenly, the walls of the tunnel gave way, trapping the teen beneath the sand, the outlet reported.
The boy remained buried until his father woke up and realized his oldest son was missing. One of his brothers cried out, “Riccardo is under the sand,” according to The Sun. The siblings pointed to the location of the collapsed tunnel, prompting their father and nearby beachgoers to rush over and frantically dig in search of him.
FREAK ACCIDENT AT THE BEACH SENDS TEEN TO ICU AS MOM WARNS OF WATERFRONT DANGER

A view of a beach in Cinque Terre, Liguria, Italy on July 27, 2024. (Photo by Gian Marco Benedetto/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Tragically, the boy was found buried in the sand, unresponsive and showing no signs of life. First responders arrived within minutes, including an air ambulance, working to revive him, but it was too late, and the boy could not be saved, the outlet reported.
“No-one realized what had happened,” Lieutenant Daniele Tramontana, the Carabiniere officer leading the police investigation, told The Sun.
AMERICAN TOURIST REPORTEDLY IMPALED ON ROME’S COLOSSEUM FENCE AS DOZENS WATCH IN HORROR

Children dig a hole on a beach as people walk by. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“They lost a lot of time because they couldn’t see him. When they realized he was missing they began to look for him but it was too late,” he continued.
A witness on the beach told Corriere della Serra that “no one on the beach had heard the teenager screaming because he was completely buried within minutes.”
A police investigation has since been opened “against persons unknown” in connection with the fatal accident, the outlet added, as authorities consider whether an autopsy will be required.
“I have spoken to colleagues, and we have never heard of anything like this happening before in Italy,” Tramontana said. “We deal with terrible situations all the time, but we can’t imagine how a game on the beach ended up this way.”
Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. She covers topics including missing persons, homicides, national crime cases, illegal immigration, and more. Story tips and ideas can be sent to stepheny.price@fox.com
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